Postby blakstone » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:43 pm
These are pseudo marks used in the late 19th/early 20th century by two firms in Hanau, Germany: Gebrüder Dingeldein and Karl Kurz. Gebrüder [=Brothers] Dingeldein were in business by 1870. In 1911, August Dingeldein married a daughter of Karl Kurz, who had left his father’s silver shop - Johann Siegmund Kurz & Co. — around 1900 to establish his own. At this time, Dingeldein inherited Kurz’s dies, patterns and pseudo-marks. Since the marks were used by both firms, there is no way to tell which made your piece, but it certainly dates around the first decade of the 20th century.
Incidentally, two of August Dingeldein’s sons moved to America, where both became prominent silversmiths: Otto Dingeldein of St. Louis and later Cape Girardeau, MO, and Karl Dingeldein of New Orleans.
